Now in its 30th year, The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition is the largest and most prestigious prize for contemporary watercolour painting in the UK. Whether it be through abstract or figurative, contemporary or traditional, the competition aims to celebrate and redefine the beauty and diversity of watercolour and water-based media. It offers a First Prize of £10,000, the Jackson’s Young Artist Award of £500 worth of vouchers towards artist materials, and the St Cuthberts Mill Prize for an outstanding work on paper.

Eighty-seven works have been selected from a total of 1057 submissions by a panel of leading figures from the art world. The 2017 judging panel includes Sarah Long, Director of Long and Ryle Gallery; Kathryn Maple, artist and 2016 First Prize Winner; Louis Wise, critic and writer for The Sunday Times and Andrew Wilton, Visiting Research Fellow at Tate Britain. The Winners will be announced in the Culture section of the Sunday Times on Sunday 27th August.

The seventy-eight shortlisted artists are as follows:

Alex Maczkowski

Alison Boult

Anastasia Shimshilashvili

Anne McAulay Edmond

Annie Williams

Camilla Dowse

Caroline Kent

Catherine Ducker

Chris Baker

Christopher Green

Claire Sparkes

Daphne Gradidge

David A Parfitt RI

David Brayne

David Greenwood

David Shuttleton

Debbie Ayles

Delia Cardnell

Dennis Roxby Bott

Doug Patterson

Elizabeth McCarten

Emma Haworth

Esme Dollow

Fay Brown

Frank Kiely

Gary Groucutt

Geoff Butterworth

Gertie Young

Greg Becker

Hannah Turner-Duffin

Hilary Rosen

Howard Flanagan

Ian Sidaway

Ingrid Greenfield

Irene Lafferty

Janet Kenyon

Janis Fry

John Hunt

Josh Crowe

Judith Logan

Karen Bowers

Kate Evans

Leo Davey

Lillias August

Louise de la Hey

Mark Elsmore

Mark Fielding

Martin Leman

Martin Spanyol

Max Boyla

Michael Williams

Michelle Cioccoloni

Patrick Shart

Paul Gadenne

Peter Quinn

Rachael Grimm

Rachel Ross

Rebecca Harper

Richard Fowler

Rika Newcombe

Robbie Wraith

Robert McKenzie

Robert Offord

Robin Storey

Roger Allen

Sally Lawson

Sarah Wimperis

Sophie Charalambous

Stephanie Tuckwell

Stephen Earl Rogers

Suman Kaur

Sylvia Alice Robertson

Teresa Lawler

Tom Caley

Varsha Bhatia

Victoria Dale

Vincent Spain

Ziling Wang

The shortlisted works will be shown at Mall Galleries, London from 19 – 24 September 2017 before touring to a number of venues across the UK.